Here's a favorite photo of my Mom and me, waaaaayyyy back when, sometime in the late 60's. I just love everything about it. When my husband brought it home from my Dad's house not long ago, it brought tears to my eyes, it just captures the love and intamacy of a mother and child so well. It was not long after this, or maybe already, that my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 38 and had a radical mastectomy. Poor girl. She fought hard for 12 years, going in and out of remission, and having many more surgeries and treatments as the cancer metastasized to her lymph nodes, bones and brain. She passed away at age 50, when I was in high school.
I miss her. I wonder how much I am like her. I inherited my Mom's love for shelling (that's me bent down, for gathering I'm sure), and her love of creating. She dabbled in many many creative pursuits, from stitching and clothes sewing to painting and macremé. I often think how wonderful it would be to have that creative relationship, as well as the obvious Mother/Daughter relationship.Wonderful, I'm sure.
Here's one of her oil paintings that I found the other day and brought home where it rests in our entry:
Another thing I inherited from my Mom apparently is my love of journaling. My Mom kept journals, a different form than I do, not visual journaling, but writing about her experience. It was her dream to write uplifting articles for women that were living with cancer as she was. She never did get any of them published. Until now, that is. My little brother recently created a blog in her honor and posted all of her cancer journal entries. As those of you that blog know, you have to hit "publish" before you can share whatever you've written with the world. So now, 30 years later, my Mom has those thoughts she was hoping to turn into articles somewhere where other people can read them. Something else I inherited from her I guess. :) I'll be adding a link to my sidebar, I hope you might take a moment or two to get to know her a little. I think she'd be honored.
Of course, being the daughter of a woman that discovered breast cancer at age 38, and having both maternal and paternal grandmothers that also had breast cancer (both sides matter now, not just maternal), doctors have been very good about aggressively checking me. I had my first mamogram before I was 30. Thankfully, both the detection and treatments of breast cancer have improved dramatically over the years. I have been tested for the BRAC gene and was thrilled to find I didn't have it, but really, since we don't know if my Mom had that kind of breast cancer or not, it doesn't mean that I might not be predisposed to what kind she had. I also get yearly ultrasound breast check after my mammogram just to be extra careful. One thing I used to do is schedule all my yearly tests at once, until an oncologist suggested that by spreading out my yearly OBGYN visit, and mammograms, It'd be possible to discover something within 6 months vs. a year. I thought that was a good suggestion for all women, so I'm passing it on to you.
When the French Brocante crown didn't sell at the Remnants of the Past event, I was somewhat relieved, I just loved it so much. Then again, once you decide to let go of something, you have kind of moved on from it already, and then I thought, I have a better way to use it: auction it off for breast cancer research, this being Breast Cancer Awareness month. So that's what I'm going to do! If you are interested in the crown, just leave a comment on this post with the amount of money you'd like to donate. (Check the previous comments to make sure you haven't already been outbid). On November 1, I'll lovingly pack up and ship the crown to the winner and will donate the entire purchase price to breast cancer research in honor of my Mom, my queen (get it?). I know she'd be tickled about this too. As I previously said, they've made such wonderful strides in breast cancer research and awareness, and I'm hoping to add another drop in the bucket by sharing something I created, hoping some of you will join me! xo
{Boy, this is turning into a personal blog, not a craft one...more creating coming soon, promise!}
